The station broadcasts its digital signal on VHF channel 10. On
cable, KTUL-TV can be seen on channel 8 on Cox Cable
in Tulsa.

KTUL-TV also serves as one of four default ABC affiliates for
the Sherman-Ada market (along
with KSWO-TV in Lawton,
Oklahoma, KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City and
WFAA-TV
in Dallas) since that market currently lacks
an ABC affiliate of its own, as the market's former ABC affiliate
KTEN became an NBC affiliate in
1998. In addition, when atmospheric conditions are right, KTUL's
signal can be picked up as far as Oklahoma City.

History

Channel 8 signed on September 18, 1954 as KTVX,
licensed to Muskogee. It was owned by Oklahoma
grocery magnate and broadcast pioneer John Griffin, who also owned
KTUL radio (1430 AM, later KELI, now KTBZ). The station had been
licensed in Muskogee because the third VHF frequency originally
allocated to Tulsa itself, channel 11, had been reserved for
educational use (and is now KOED). The
Griffins thus decided to seek the channel 8 allocation in Muskogee,
the nearest city in the Tulsa market with a VHF license. UHF was not
considered viable at the time.

It broadcast from a converted grocery store in Muskogee. It took
the ABC affiliation from Tulsa's second television station, KCEB-TV (channel 23).
The station's first broadcast was a football game between Oklahoma and
California, which Oklahoma won.
The first two personalities at the station were news anchor Jack
Morris and meteorologist Don Woods. Sports director Hal O'Halloran
would come later.

The current studios on Lookout Mountain were built for
television station KCEB in 1954. The second TV station in
Tulsa (after KOTV), KCEB briefly carried NBC programming, moving to ABC after KVOO (changed
to KJRH in 1980) signed on as an
NBC affiliate. KTVX had become the new ABC affiliate, leaving KCEB
with DuMont Television Network, a
non-viable fourth-network that itself would soon fold.

In 1955, KCEB sold its studios on Lookout Mountain to Griffin;
former owner James C. Leake moved the KTVX operation to Tulsa from
Muskogee soon after KCEB had folded.
KTVX moved there in November; KTUL-AM had been there since April.
The Lookout Mountain facility was used as an auxiliary studio until
1957, when the station won FCC permission to
move all operations, as well as the station's license, to Tulsa.
The call sign KTVX, is currently
used by an ABC affiliate in Salt Lake City,
Utah. On September 12, 1957 -- the day the move took effect—the
station changed its calls to KTUL-TV to match its
radio sister.

In 1965, KTUL built a new 1,909-foot (582-meter) tower—the
second-tallest transmitting tower in the country at the time.
Combined with a heavy emphasis on local programming, KTUL soon
became one of the strongest ABC affiliates in the country, and the
top-rated station in Tulsa for many years.

Betty Boyd, lured away from KOTV to KTUL in 1965, made KTUL #1
among female viewers with her community affairs program, "The Betty
Boyd Show", which was a mix of community affairs, women's topics,
and interviews with newsmakers around Tulsa. John Chick, who was at
KTUL from 1955 until 1979, made KTUL #1 with children in the 1960s
with two afternoon children's shows, "Cartoon Zoo" and "Mr. Zing
and Tuffy," at a time when children were just coming home from
school. In the 1970s, Chick made KTUL #1 in the 7AM hour with "The
John Chick Show," a live, local country music show that featured
local country music talent and squaredancing. Airing during a time
when ABC had no morning news program, Chick's show did better than
the Today Show on KVOO (channel 2) and the CBS Morning
News on KOTV (channel 6) and when ABC premiered "Good Morning
America" in 1975, KTUL pre-empted it in favor of Chick's show. When
Elton Rule of ABC demanded to know why KTUL did not air GMA, James
C. Leake, owner of KTUL, showed Rule the ratings book, and the ABC
execs backed off. KTUL began airing GMA in 1979, after Chick left
KTUL).

KTUL remained #1 with kids in the 1970s with "Uncle Zeb's
Cartoon Camp," which replaced Mr. Zing and Tuffy in 1970 and was
hosted by Carl Bartholemew as the gruff Uncle Zeb. Following Uncle
Zeb were sitcoms that appealed to children, such as The
Flintstones, The Lucy Show, Gilligan's
Island, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Gomer Pyle
USMC. And in news, Jack Morris brought great ratings to KTUL,
making the station #1 in the local news hours. When Morris left
KTUL for KVOO in 1970, Bob Hower took over as anchor and brought
even greater ratings to the ABC affiliate, and James C. Leake's
heavy promotions of KTUL made KTUL command the Tulsa airwaves with
his "8's the Place" logos and promoting "The News Guys," KTUL's
news team. After the Leake era ended in 1982, KTUL remained #1 in
the Tulsa market through the 1980s and 1990s with its selection of
syndicated programming, as well as with its popular newscasts. It
would not be until the mid 2000's, when CBS-affiliated KOTV
overtook KTUL as #1 in the Tulsa market.

Griffin sold KTUL-AM-TV and sister station KATV in Little Rock, Arkansas to his
brother-in-law, James C. "Jimmy" Leake, in the early 1970s; Griffin
retained control of KWTV in Oklahoma City. The two had shared
ownership of the stations for many years. Leake sold off the radio
station a few years later, but kept channel 8 until selling it to
current owner Allbritton in 1982.

In 1987, KTUL's broadcast tower was knocked over by an ice
storm, and a new one was constructed in 1988. In 1999, KTUL built
new broadcast facilities on Lookout Mountain to accommodate station
growth.

In 1996, meteorologist Frank Mitchell made a surprise wedding
proposal to his co-host, Teri Bowers during a live broadcast of
"Good Morning Oklahoma". The proposal made national news and was
featured on programs such as American Journal, Geraldo and Maury.

In 2004, Channel 8 premiered "Good Day Tulsa", a live, locally
produced hour long program mainly focusing on local businesses,
events and entertainment. The original hosts of the program were
D.C. Roberts and Keith Taylor, with Mike Collier doing weather and
Kristen Dickerson doing live, on-location reports. D.C. Roberts
left "Good Day Tulsa" and KTUL on August 18, 2008. Kristen
Dickerson has taken over as co-host. "Good Day Tulsa" is the only
locally produced program at 9AM in the Tulsa market.

In 2005, KTUL introduced First Alert Weather 24/7, a
digital/cable channel devoted to 24-hour-a-day weather information.
It is available over the air on KTUL's digital subchannel 8.2 and
on Cox Cable on channel 247.

Analog-to-digital
conversion

In 2009, KTUL remained on its
current pre-transition channel number, 10 after turning off the
analog signal on channel 8.[1]
However, through the use of PSIP, digital
television receivers display KTUL's virtual channel as 8.

Programming

KTUL clears the entire ABC network schedule and airs almost all
ABC programs in their network-recommended timeslots, however Nightline airs an hour later than on
most ABC stations because of an hour-long block of sitcoms airing
after the 10PM newscast, and the Sunday edition of ABC's
World News airs a half-hour later than most stations. From
its 2003 debut until 2005, KTUL preempted the talk show Jimmy Kimmel
Live!, which ended up airing on KQCW (then WB affiliate KWBT).
Jimmy Kimmel Live! has since moved to KTUL and airs
immediately after Nightline.

Current syndicated programming includes Deal or No
Deal, The Bonnie Hunt Show, Rachael Ray
(formerly seen on KOKI), Two and a Half Men,
According to Jim, Frasier, The Andy Griffith Show,
with Regenesis and Monk on weekends. KTUL airs a
few more sitcoms than most ABC, CBS or NBC stations usually do.
KTUL was previously the Tulsa home for Wheel
of Fortune and Jeopardy! from the early 1980s until
2005, when both shows moved to NBC affiliate KJRH. KTUL produces a
local sports call-in show called You Make the Call, airing
Sundays after the 10PM newscast, featuring sports-related questions
and comments by viewers in the Green Country area.

News
operation

KTUL broadcasts a total of 27 hours of local news per week (with
five hours on weekdays and two hours each on Saturdays and
Sundays).

Don Woods
and Gusty

When KTUL signed on as KTVX in Muskogee, the station was looking
for a weatherman who could draw a cartoon character. Don Woods was chosen, and his
cartoon character became Gusty. From 1954 until his retirement in
1989, Woods drew Gusty live on TV, and every day, people sent in
requests for a Gusty. Gusty always told what the weather was going
to be like. He could be drawn waving flags and smiling for fair
weather, or he could be drawn holding an umbrella for rainy days,
or jumping in his fraidy hole for thunderstorms. After Woods'
retirement from KTUL in 1989, Woods continued to draw Gusty from
time to time, and he even authored a book entitled The Gospel
According to Gusty. In 2005, Gusty was made Oklahoma's State
Cartoon Character by the Oklahoma Legislature, and there's
even a drawing of Gusty at the Smithsonian Institution in
Washington, D.C.

Waiting
Child

Since 1980, KTUL has featured its Waiting Child segment, which
highlights children who are in state custody and looking for an
adoptive family. Then-anchor Bob Hower began Waiting Child in
October 1980, and did the segment until his retirement in 1986.
Former anchor Rea Blakey and then sports director John Walls
followed in Hower's footsteps. Anchor Carole Lambert has hosted the
segment since 1990, and it has resulted in more than 4000 children
being adopted. The segment airs Wednesdays at 4:00 and Saturdays at
10:00.

The song "(I'm a) Waiting Child," which plays during the Waiting
Child news segment, was composed by former anchor Bob Hower and is
sung by Oleta
Adams.

Ratings

KTUL, for many years the perennial leader in the Tulsa
television market, currently ranks third overall in news
viewership, with its late newscast (10:00pm) placing third behind
KOTV and KJRH, and ahead of KOKI. [1] The station
ranks second in primetime viewership as of November 2007. [2]